Fiasco over land tax at Kadakampally ends

After a gap, the land tax office begins accepting the tax

After a long wait of around five years, around 130 residents of Kadakampally village are now able to remit land tax.

The Kadakampally village office on Tuesday accepted land tax from the victims of the land grab case involving S. Salim Raj, gunman of former Chief Mininister Oommen Chandy.

Authorities had not allowed them to pay tax for the past few years, saying that there were other title deed holders for the same property. The land grab case, currently being investigated by the CBI, involves the grabbing of 44.5 acres of land using forged documents. “Although we had given several complaints over the years, all our attempts to pay the land tax for our land have been unsuccessful till date. We were portrayed as land grabbers by the previous government in an affidavit submitted to the court,” says Kadakampally Kishore, a member of the Kadakampally Land Owners’ Action Council.

Former District Collector Biju Prabhakar had sought a legal opinion from former Advocate General K.P. Dandapani on the acceptance of land tax.

The AG had said it was not advisable to accept basic tax from anybody with respect to the land in Kadakampally until a competent court enters into clear finding with regard to the title of the property.

Mr. Kishore had filed a complaint regarding the land tax, again after the LDF government came to power last year. Based on this, former District Collector S. Venkatesapathy had issued an order to accept land tax from the original owners and cancel the forged records of the land mafia. As the land tax was not being accepted, the residents here have been facing quite a lot of problems. They could not apply for loans to build houses or to meet expenses for education or other purposes. They also could not sell their land due to this.